As he journeys, here's an omnium-gatherum of musings by Lohcifer, a curmudgeon and misanthrope with a tortured soul. Oh, did anyone put a gun to your head and forced you to read this? Lohcifer blogs for himself.

Monthly Archives: December 2011

What a year this has been! The biggest event was my leaving the employ of a globally integrated corporation I have been with for the past ten and a half years. Oh I should have left earlier. Being able to … Continue reading →

My last day with the circus was on July 31 this year. In August I inked contracts worth at least 80k worth of work. September was another bumper month. Ditto October and November. A couple of days’ work each month. … Continue reading →

On Christmas eve I gave everyone in my family a copy of the book Please Look after Mom. There’s a reason for that. When Lincoln’s wife delivered a baby, she – a Chinese born in Canada – declared to all … Continue reading →

By now every mother’s son has said his two cents’ worth about the recent MRT failures. There were lots of finger-pointing and gnashing of teeth. This is my take of the whole she-bang: The MRT saga – three disruptions in … Continue reading →

Received two lovely pipes this Christmas – one a Stanwell (a company established in Denmark back in 1942) and, in the foreground, a Johs. Mogens “Johs” Johanssen lives and works in Frederikshavn, Denmark and churns out about two thousand pipes … Continue reading →

Just bought myself a Rolando Negoita pipe. Rolando Negoita was born in Transylvania, Romania, and teaches Metalsmithing and Product Design at Parsons School of Design in New York. He is also a pipe maker. He is constantly inventing shapes and … Continue reading →

Two recent acquisitions – a Castello and a Michael Parks. Castello (meaning “castle” in Italian) was founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti in Cantù, Italy. His son, Franco Coppo, now runs the factory. Each Castello pipe is made by hand … Continue reading →

The immovable ladder at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is symbolic of the schisms in Christendom. There are no fewer than 17 Christian creeds present in Israel – the Roman Catholics fighting with the Greeks, the Copts, … Continue reading →

Israel is nothing more than the world’s largest tourist trap exploiting the religious and the vulnerable. I came to this conclusion after being persuaded to go with my wife on a church-led “pilgrimage” from December 4 to 15. Yes – … Continue reading →